No Santa Claus here! Well that’s not entirely true. Of course, no country is immune from the intrusion of western culture. The little boy has some Santa-themed candy, and Santa visited town the other day as well. However, the Nisse is what drives the holiday spirit here in Norway!

What is a Nisse??

Nisser are creatures from Nordic folklore, generally described as short with a long white beard and a pointy cone cap. Sound familiar? Some of them look like an old-man elf dressed up as Santa Claus! Some of them are cute… others are a little scary!

Every year, Norwegian TV channels do a sort of advent calendar, with one episode shown each day of December until Christmas. From this show, I have learned about two types of Nisse. (Although there is apparently a whole Nisse-universe). Blånisser (blue nisser), live up in the mountains and can only go out during the blue hour. The Rødnisser (red nisser) live in farms and help look after the animals. If they like you (by the way, you have to leave them rice porridge), then they will help you and your farm out. If they don’t like you… well I hear they can be pretty mischievous.

Click HERE for glimpse of Nisse TV! Forewarning, you either need to speak Norwegian or have someone who does explain to you whats happening at every minute, or you won’t understand.

Nisser Party!

Sunday afternoon we attended a Nisser party to celebrate the start of the holiday season. There was sledding, Julebrus (soda that tastes like drinking a melted jolly rancher), and porridge? Yes – Rice porridge, the Red Nisser’s favorite! Each kid munched down on a bowl of sweet rice porridge. However, Santa showed up with a bag of candy for each child too.

This is my first country with a language barrier, and it is at times difficult. I love to small talk and meet new people, but that is hard if you don’t speak the language, and obviously I can’t just expect everyone to change their conversations to English for my benefit. Also, not everyone is super conversational with English, so that would be a burden onto others as well. At the party, instead of chatting with adults, I spent some time sledding amongst the children.

Brown Cheese or Brunost

This delectable cheese is a Norwegian treat, and its not really cheese at all! To make Brunost, water from the whey of goat’s milk is boiled down, and this carmelizes the sugars. When the gloop cools, you have got Norwegian brown cheese.

Tove mentioned it was good for breakfast! The next morning I had an egg on toast, and slivered some brown cheese onto it as well. Well, apparently that is not quite the way Norwegian’s normally eat it. They laughed at me. That tracks.

It is more of a sweet topping than a savory cheese. It is most normally eaten on bread/crackers with jam, and it is had for breakfast or during tea time.

However you eat it, I think it tastes grand. Here are some of my more culturally normal creations. Although, there is apparently also a more traditional way to slice the cheese. I just don’t have the patience for that.

Other Adventures

This past week, we took a trip to go cross-country skiing. I really enjoyed that, and I hope to do more of it in the future. I also watched Terje make some sausages with his hunter friend. I will be honest, it takes a strong stomach to watch raw/fresh-hunted meat pushed into pig intestines. However, he made a good point that the meat is probably better than the sausages I buy in the supermarket. Tomorrow, we try the sausages with dinner.

Odds are there will be one more post for Norway before I am onto London. I am so excited to see my friend Juliette again. I think I am really needing some time with close friends to feel more connected again.